A Time for Changes
by CloZack PASSION
Summary: ...It would only be a waiting game. Waiting for someone to die so she could have another chance to live.rnrn(Now featuring lyrics by Nigthwish)
1. Act One: The Begining

((A/N: this is my first Lurlene McDaniel fanfic, so please don't be too harsh. ^_^; I haven't read many of the fics on here so I don't know how well it will fit or anything. Anyways...this acts as a sequel to "Sixteen and Dying" and a semi-sequel to "Reach for Tomorrow". The plot actually begins before the end of "Reach for Tomorrow". Please read and review...and if you want to contact me with any suggestions or anything, you can e-mail me (lovelyfreak89@hotmail.com) or IM me (Ih8happypeoples or XxGameSlaveGazxX on AIM, Cloti4ever or Cloudzacutie on Yahoo, Lovelyfreak89@hotmail.com, Ih8happypeople@hotmail.com, or Cloudzacutie@yahoo.com on MSN). Thanks!))  
  
"You lied to that poor girl, Morgan." Maggie Lancaster said, her voice stressed as she looked up from her reservation guide on the lodge's front desk. Morgan looked up at her, his blue eyes avoiding her direct gaze.  
  
"I didn't lie, aunt. I just...didn't tell her the complete truth." he said, his gaze returning to the long plains stretching outside the lodge's sliding glass doors.  
  
"You're going to tell her when you see her at that wedding, right?" his aunt continued, skimming over the guests' names. Morgan had breifly mentioned Meg Charnell to her, and she had learned more about the aspiring pediatrician through extensive grilling of her young nephew.  
  
"I-No!" he cried, with a look of disgust in his eyes, "Why on earth would I tell her? She's lucky she got a response at all! She just as well ruined my life!" Morgan had taken a severe turn with his personality in the past months. He had finally worked up the courage to take the simple blood test he had been dreading.  
  
And dreading with good reason. The results showed that, while his aunt was safe, he was subject to face the fate he feared. He tested positive for the genes that would cause the disease that had recently taken his father, and would one day take him as well.  
  
"The girl didn't ruin your life, Morgan!" Maggie cried, exasperated. He'd gone over the possibility so many times in his mind, Maggie was more than slightly surprised to see him so bent up over it. She could see it all on one hand with perfect clarity. It was a risk she herself was potentially living with her entire life. But on the other hand, she'd never seen Morgan acting so bent out of shape. Somehow, deep down, she'd expected he would take it just as cooly as he had everything else. "Your life held this for as long as it has been lived, and you've known it could have for years! You can't blame that poor girl." she had a tired look to her eyes, and when Morgan looked at her he could see it clearly.  
  
It was his fault she had that look, he knew.  
  
While his aunt was aging, that had very little to do with her appearance. He blamed himself for her worn, pained eyes, and overall dingy look. Since he had taken that damned test she had been despairing, dreading the day he would become what his father had. A total wreck. That was his fate now, and he knew it was tearing his aunt up inside.  
  
"I can't tell her." he said dully, not giving any explanation. He didn't feel he needed any. It was his life...certainly not his aunt's. And his decision just as much.  
  
Anne Wingate had instilled that kind of thinking within him. That decisive "control" that he felt he needed over anything he could have it on. And telling or not telling Meg Charnell about his disease was one of those things.  
  
"You really should, Morgan." His aunt half-pleaded. She could tell by the way Morgan spoke that he had cared about the girl he met in that camp, but she also knew Morgan had no intention to tell her. And in some ways she couldn't blame him. He cared about her, and she was sure that this girl cared about him. If she was so bent on his being tested, it would only make sense. In a way she could see that this was for her protection as well, as learning his fate would most likely hurt the girl deeply. But something inside kept telling her that wasn't why he was keeping it from her.  
  
Not in the least.  
  
"Are you going to that wedding?" she asked, half-changing the subject. Morgan looked up again, brushing whisps of dark hair from his face.  
  
"I suppose I ought to. That Josh is a pretty okay kid, I guess." he said, looking up at the solid wood ceiling. The last thing he needed his aunt knowing was that he wanted to see that girl. The girl he was lying to. She was the one thing that had caught his interest since Anne died over two years ago.   
  
And she had his intrest good.  
  
"She'll be there, won't she?" Maggie asked quietly, seeing through him.  
  
"I..don't know...." he lied, knowing it was pointless as he said it.  
  
"You should tell her then." she said quietly, and Morgan left at that statement.  
  
((It'll get better soon, I promise!!)) 


	2. Act Two: The Wedding

((A/N: Thank you all for the nice reviews, and I apologize for taking so long. As for the one who complained about how this isn't true and Morgan was fine... that's why this is called fan FICTION not fan re-writes of the author's original work. That's all... now just enjoy, alright? ))  
  
Morgan sighed, tugging down the sleek black overcoat. He knew coming here was a mistake. He already looked like an idiot, and he hadn't even seen Meg yet. 'Maybe she won't come...' he told himself, actually praying it as he did. The last thing he wanted was to be confronted with the girl. Half-lies through the postal service were one thing. Totally lying to her face... or even telling her the truth would be at least a thousand times worse.  
"I look like a dumbass." he grumbled under his breath, smoothing back his nearly shoulder-length chestnut hair. He stared at the ground, still tugging at the suit. It was too small on him. The entire thing was tight and could barely be buttoned, and beyond that, the sleeves rode a few inches up his wrists.  
"You look fine." Eric assured him, squirming around in his own suit. It was a little small as well, but neither looked incredibly bad.  
"That's what you get for not showing up to get fitted." Josh said, combing his hair for what had to be the hundreth time.  
"You're lucky I showed up at all." Morgan said with a slight anger in his throat. He'd rather be back at the ranch, or better yet, at the rodeo than here. He was missing most of the competitions, and this was set to be his return after the two years he spent doing little more than sulking around the ranch.  
"If you don't want to be here...why did you come?" Jeff piped in. His small build let for a good fit on his outfit. It was even a little loose on him, giving him the appearance of a young boy trying to make himself look alot more important than he really was.  
"..." he didn't speak, staring at the ground. Eric grinned, his blue eyes twinkling.  
"Because he has a thing for Meg." Eric piped up, laughing a little. Josh gave him a sidelong glance, silently wondering what on earth he could see in that girl. She was cute, sure...but definately not beautiful. She was a little pudgy too...of course, he never got the best look at her. He just never thought that Morgan would go for a girl like that. He imagined the rugged looking cowboy having anything on his mind besides just how beautiful his girl was.  
"Shove it. I don't give a damn about any of the people here, really. I mean... I barely know any of you. I'm doing this because... I need to talk to the girl, and I don't write." Jeff smirked at this comment, "never learned how?" he asked with a snicker.  
"Shut up..." Morgan whispered, trudging toward the mirror and fixing his hair back. "...you really don't have any idea." he said quietly, his arms shaking as he clenched his fists hard. He pushed aside the sudden terror that cast itself over him. Just a little shake like this...was it the begining of the end? "What the hell do you know? What's wrong with you, Morgan? You gonna get yourself killed playing with your horses? What do you know about living in constant danger of dying!?" Jeff suddenly shouted. 'where the hell did that come from?' Morgan scowled silently, glaring upwards at the teenager. "I don't think there's one of here who DOESN'T know about that, Jeff...." Josh said carefully, trying only to halt the conversation. "All of us have been hurt or sick or come really close to losing one thing or another...so don't be attacking someone. In a few hours none of you will ever have to see eachother again." Josh said softly, and everyone seemed pleased with this.  
"Fine..let's just get this over with." Jeff said with a low growl and left the room. Eric and Morgan followed shortly after. "I'm not staying...I need to get all of this over with..." Morgan said to himself, looking down. Struggling through what he knew would be the longest hour of his life wasn't something he was ready to do. Not if Meg was there... not if she still thought he was okay. He closed his eyes as he slowly slid back against the paneled wall, coming to a halt in a sitting position at the bottom. What the hell was he going to tell that girl?  
"Yo...Morgan...are you alright?" Eric dropped down to the ground next to him. He knew that he wasn't already, and was sure that his answer would be a simple 'I'm fine' or 'Leave me alone'. That was the cowboy's nature. Eric smirked as he thought of him as a sort of lone ranger...he definately fit the bill.  
"Do I look like it?" he asked quietly, opening his cloudy blue eyes and staring at the hard oak floor of the Jenny House chapel. He never wanted to come here. Showing up was a mistake. He should be at home in Colarado with Maggie and Don...not in South Carolina going to some guy's wedding just to see a girl. A girl he didn't even love.  
He couldn't love her. He turned the idea over in his head so many times, he could bring up any point of the foolishness of ever feeling such a way towards her and explain it. There were too many things wrong with caring about her. First off, they were two completely different people. Meg had dreams...she was going to be a doctor, a damn good one he already decided for her.  
Beyond that, she just wasn't what he wanted in a girl. She was the little rich girl he always avoided on the ranch. The snobby doctor's kid who got whatever she want. Who lived in a huge house with an indoor pool and maids. Someone who didn't do a single chore in her entire life, and never planned on it. Then there was Anne. He loved Anne. Always...and though he never conciously did, he promised to himself that he would never love anyone the same way again. He knew even if he tried he couldn't. And that wasn't fair to Meg...to anyone. Of course, there was the other bit of unfairness he brought to the table.  
Huntingtons Chorea.  
He would never let the same thing that happened to his parents happen to him. He wouldn't get married, never make the mistake of possibly passing down this gene, and never ever take the chance of tearing apart the family the way it did his.  
"What's goin' on with you, man?" Eric asked quietly. He always thought Morgan the solemn type...not the kind to just break down like this. Something wasn't right. He could tell that much easily enough.  
"I've just got alot of things on my mind, alright?" His voice was thick, and he suddenly felt like crying. Crying like he hadn't since he was twelve years old. He felt like bawling his eyes out until he couldn't breathe..until there were no more tears left. He didn't want to die...and he wanted to die alone even less.

* * *

She was there.  
No matter how much he had prayed and wished and hoped, she was still there. Standing in the perfect row of perfect bridesmaids was the perfect Meg. And around her neck was the ribbon. That goddamned ribbon.  
His lies were tied to her like a trophy. Like she was telling the whole world, "I have a thing for a guy and he told me a lie. A terrible, TERRIBLE lie." He cringed when he first saw her, but the smile on her face said she didn't notice. At least there was one thing to be thankful for.  
Well, two things.  
In only a few more minutes Katie and Josh would be saying "I do" and this whole thing would be over. With no plans to attend the reception or even stick around to congratulate the couple, he would be gone. Packing his bags and a few hours after that on his way back home. For the first time in a very long time, he would be glad to be going back to the ranch. Back to what was familiar to him. Back to his normal life, for as long as it could be considered that.

* * *

"Morgan!" He was almost to his car when he heard the voice of Megan Charnell calling to him. He ignored it and quickened his pace. Maybe she would just think he hadn't heard her. She would write to him, he would ignore the letters, and finally she might leave him alone. "Morgan Lancaster, you stop right this minute!" she yelled in a commanding tone. He gritted his teeth and continued towards his car.  
He stopped at red Mustang, a rental from the local agency, and shoved the key in. She was running to him now, holding her spike-heel pumps in one hand and holding up her long bridesmaid's gown in the other. He was sitting in the car when her hand dropped the dress and clamped on to the car door.  
"What on EARTH is wrong with you? I've been trying to catch you all day!" she exclaimed, putting her body in front of the door so he wouldn't be able to shut her out. Not the way he did on all the other things.  
"I know... and I've been avoiding you, if you haven't noticed." The bluntness surprised Meg. She was sure that he was avoiding her, but she was shocked to hear him admit it. She wouldn't have expected something like that from Morgan.  
"Why!?" she demanded, her hands on her hips now. He looked her over. Meg was pretty. Maybe not by culture's normal standards, seeing as how she didn't look as though she hadn't eaten in months. She wasn't always dressed like a tramp, and her makeup didn't remind him of a rodeo clown. But she was still beautiful. There was no denying that. Her sparkling eyes and beatiful smile caught his eye the most, though neither was too apealing right now. "You said..." he started slowly, "that if I contacted you, and I told you how I was... you wouldn't force me to have anything to do with you ever again." he looked up at her, "I thought I could trust your word, Miss Charnell, but I seem to have been mistaken."  
Now she was upset. Morgan was the number one reason she'd even attended this wedding, and now he was avoiding her like the plauge. What was wrong with him? Everything about him seemed a little different. Something clicked in her mind, and she spoke it aloud,  
"What? Is this about the test results?"  
His eyes caught hers and he glared at her in a frenzy. Did she know? Had she figured it out?  
When he didn't speak she continued.  
"Are you upset that you're not dying or something!?" she asked. She had stood back from the door inadvertently, the digging of the metal hurting her back.  
"Who said I'm not?" he hissed before slamming the door and skidding out of the parking lot.  
Meg stood in awe. A dark puddle splashed onto her dress when he zoomed away, her shoes had dropped and were now beyond repair, and everything seemed to be falling apart.  
He lied to her. He said he was okay, but he wasn't. He was going to die.  
She stood that way for a long time. It was hours before anyone found her... collapsed and unconcious in the parking lot.  
  
((A/N: This was originally meant to be two chapters, but both were too short... please continue with the kind reviews!)) 


	3. Act Three: Tragedy

((A/N: Thank you for the great response to my fic ; PS: Morgan's last name is Lancaster too! Just like April. See? I was right... go ahead and check the description for "Reach for Tomorrow" Also, since I"m writing this is in my style more than that of a McDaniel book, there is a little rough language. no F-bombs or anything, but the PG 13 rating should give you an idea...))

When Meg awoke, she was laying in a hospital bed with Katie, Josh, and Lacey watching worriedly over her. She closed her eyes hard and blinked a few times, her head pounding. All at once the events occurring after the wedding came back to her; running to catch up with Morgan, trying to get a straight answer out of him, learning he was dying.

She gasped suddenly and tried to sit up but finding that she was unable to do so. She felt as if she'd been run over by a semi, and wasn't so sure that she hadn't, in reality.

"What happened?" she finally asked, frightened by the sound of her own slurred speech.

"Lacey found you collapsed in the parking lot..." Katie explained, her voice a lot calmer than her tight expression. "We called an ambulance and they said they wanted you admitted for testing." she continued.

"I'm fine..." she said, trying to sit up again. This time Lacey grabbed her shoulder and pushed her slightly against the bed.

"Don't." she said harshly. "There's something wrong with you. If you were fine, you wouldn't have collapsed."

"It's just the heat." she protested, but Lacey didn't buy it.

"What? It never gets hot in DC? Don't try to make a fool of Lacey Duval." she said, taking a seat. Meg sighed, closing her eyes and rubbing her temples. She was sure that there was nothing wrong with her. It was just bad combination of the heat and what Morgan had told her, along with nerves. But she couldn't say that to them... Morgan would hate her more than he already did if she told them.

"Please... I'm just over-exhausted. I haven't been sleeping well." She _knew _this part was true at least. Since she'd received the news of Katie's wedding, and that Morgan would be there from an 'outside source'... She recalled the phone call from Lacey well:

_"Meg, you're coming right!?" Lacey had asked as soon as she answered the phone._

_"I'm... not so sure." she admitted, "I mean, I barely know Katie or Josh."_

_"But you're a bridesmaid..."_

_"I know but..."_

_"Morgan's gonna be there." Lacey blurted._

_"What? Why on earth would that mean anything to me?" she asked, playing innocent._

_"Don't play dumb with me, Megan Charnell... And now I know I'll see you there."_

At that point Meg _had _surrendered and agreed she would go. Lacey was too smart about other people. Meg wondered how she could possibly become so insightful about her and Morgan over the few weeks they spent in Jenny house over the previous summer.

"That may be so..." Josh finally spoke up, "but the doctors seem to think it was something more than that, and you're staying here for tests." He had a white-knuckled grip on Katie's small hand, a fierce look in his eyes. Finding Meg mysteriously collapsed in the parking lot had brought back the painful memories of his own brother, Arron's, death.

He'd suddenly collapsed on the football field before his first real college-league game. The doctors told him he had suffered an aneurysm- the breaking of a major blood vessel in the brain, they had explained. He refused to accept it at first, and seeing his brother on life support, as if he were sleeping, made matters no better. He clenched his eyes shut as the memories continued to flood over him.

After the neurologist had spoken to Josh and his grandfather, another doctor came in. Dr. Gillespe, he remembered. A woman from the Michigan Donor Services. When Josh first heard this he was nearly as horrified as Gramps, who was afraid the doctors let Aaron die just for his organs. But as Josh remembered his brother and listened to the woman's speech, he made the decision to donate Aaron's organs- a decision that had changed his life forever. For, if he hadn't made this choice, he'd have never met Katie. She'd have probably died.

Aaron's heart now beat inside Katie, a former victim of Cardiomyopathy- a virus that attacked her heart. And Katie was now Josh's wife.

"It was just a little fainting spell, nothing more..." Meg persisted.

"Or..." Josh spoke with conviction, "It could have been _much _more. When my brother died, we never knew there was anything wrong with him. He was a star football player, for crying out loud. Then one day he just... collapsed. He was dead... nineteen years old and he was dead, gone forever." Josh's voice was thick with emotion, and Katie gave his hand a quick squeeze. She recalled the first time she'd met Josh. She had been in the ICU at the hospital after receiving his brother's heart. She'd thought he was just her imagination until he returned in the waiting rom, where she'd been lounging and reading some magazines.

She'd fallen for him almost instantly.

"But... that's different, Josh. Do you know what the odds that someone will, at any point in their life, have a fatal aneurysm is?" She sounded accusing, but she actually had no idea on the actual statistics. "And besides, if that were the case... I'd be dead now." she pointed out.

Josh sighed and he would've spoken if, at that moment, a doctor hadn't burst into the room. His face was worried and he carried a chart and folder in one hand, his knuckles pure white. Josh, Katie, and Lacey all looked up and Meg smiled a little.

"Daddy..."

A knock at his hotel room door broke Morgan's attention away from the televised rodeo he was watching from the king-sized bed. 'Cleaning ladies?' he asked himself, gazing at the clock. '4:30' highly unlikely. They probably brushed through the room while he was at the wedding, though he hadn't taken much notice of whether or not the room looked any different than when he'd first checked in.

He groaned and swung his legs off the bed, slowly standing up and padding over to the door. He opened it to find Eric Lawrence standing in front of the doorway, clothed with only a beach towel around his waist, and he assumed a swimsuit under that.

"Come on bud." he slapped a hand on Morgan's shoulder. "Let's hit the pool." Eric invited himself into the room and jumped down onto the large bed and checked the TV. "Dude...this is some crazy shit, you ever actually see one of these?"

"Sure have. Been in my share too..." he smirked, crossing his arms and leaning against a wall, staring at Eric. For some reason, the look of astonishment on the city boy's face gave Morgan a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.

"Damn..." he let out a low whistle. "Anyways... grab some shorts and let's hit the pool before it's too late." Eric and Morgan's planes were both leaving early the next morning, and the pool would only be open to the public until 6:00, at which point weekly cleaning would take place. Normally, social activity with Eric was something Morgan wanted to avoid at all costs, but he needed to get his mind off the events of this afternoon.

"Alright, give me a minute." he hoisted his suitcase onto the bed, grabbed an old pair of cut-off jean shorts and changed, while Eric was entranced by the rodeo. "Alright, let's go..." he declared, grabbing the remote control and clicking off the small television, made to look even smaller nestled into the large oak entertainment center. And with that, they were off.

Eric and Morgan were dashing at full speed through the crowded lobby and down the first hall they could find, several angry staffers chasing after them. Both young men were laughing as they ran, slowing them considerably. They turned the next corner and ducked into the first stairwell they could find, dashing up the stairs now. Perhaps it would've been a better escape if they hadn't left trials of water from their soaking bodies behind them wherever they ran. When they reached the top floor- where both of their rooms were located- they dashed to Eric's room and slammed, then locked, the door behind them.

Eric slid down against the door into a sitting position where Morgan remained standing against it, both laughing and panting, over-chlorinated pool water and hot sweat dripping off both of them.

After breaking basically every one of the posted 'pool rules', the two were chased angrily out of the pool and threatened to be banned from the hotel. Morgan smirked,

"Never woulda thought someone like _you _woulda had that in ya..." he said, thoughtfully. Eric smirked,

"What's that supposed to mean?" he challenged, looking up at Morgan.

"It means I never thought you were good for anythin' but flirting." he said, pushing off the door.

"What about you and Meg?" Eric returned, also standing.

"Meg's just a girl who was there. I didn't care about anyone there..." Eric lifted a brow. From what he'd seen, Morgan and Meg had been a lot more than just friendly acquaintances. He'd noticed her sneaking off on more than one occasion in order to be with him. Eric wondered if she was just a game, maybe something of a sport to Morgan. Maybe not as risky as a rodeo back with him, but surely still with its perks. And now he wondered just what all he HAD done with Megan.

"Don't look at me that way." he continued, glaring at him and now standing in front of him. "I didn't do anything to make her thing any different. I told her from the start I cared about someone else, and that she's not around any more." his gaze softened a little as he thought of her.

Anne Wingate.

When he'd first met her on the ranch were he lived and worked with his aunt and uncle, he'd assumed she was just another spoiled rich girl getting a birthday gift from daddy or something similar. But he was 100% wrong. Anne was the most kind, caring, all-around _amazing _person he'd ever met. And she was sick. Dying. Dead now.

Anne had HIV when she was on the ranch, which and developed into full-blown AIDS virus by the time she returned to her home in New York. Morgan had jetted to New York and spent her last days with her. It was the most excruciating thing he had ever experienced. The pain far superior to even the worst bronco's kick. His face twisted just thinking about this and Eric looked down.

Maybe he'd been a little too quick to judge, but he wasn't going to let Morgan off the hook so quickly. He recalled Morgan telling him the girl he loved had died of pneumonia, like his own once-girlfriend Kara Fischer. But Kara was also a victim of Cystic Fibrosis. He'd wondered many times what else ailed the girl Morgan was obviously very much in love with at one time, and now seemed the perfect time to ask.

"You said when we first met... that that girl had died of pneumonia. But you also said she'd received some money from that One Last Wish foundation that Holloway runs." he paused, as if to emphasize this next part, "What else was wrong with her, if you don't mind me asking? I mean... pneumonia isn't chronic, and often times it isn't terminal, so..."

Morgan's expression darkened and turned angry. If he told Eric the truth, he'd get the wrong idea about everything. He'd think the Anne a tramp or a slut, and maybe even that he'd slept with her, causing his coldness toward Meg. He gritted his teeth and let out a low growl.

"That's none of your business, Eric, and you should keep your nose out of places it doesn't belong." he said in a low, menacing voice, before he stormed out of the room, slamming the door hard behind him.

Chelsea James sat back on the bed in the room she was sharing with Lacey and rubbed her eyes. The wedding day commotion had taking it out of her. From the wedding itself, to having to deal with DJ Longado, to Meg Charnell being found unconscious in the parking lot. It drained her far worse than it did anyone else, and this worried her. She hadn't been drained nearly this easy since before she'd received her heart transplant.

Could she be rejecting? She knew she'd never missed a single anti-rejection pill, but she hadn't been in for a check-up in several months. Not to mention that she was beginning to feel like she was coming down with a flu. She knew she should be seen by a doctor, and possibly be in the hospital right now, but that would've meant missing Katie O'Roark... no, it was Katie Martel now... either way Katie's wedding. Her best friend's wedding.

Her face felt warm and she was sure she was coming down with a fever, the life-long fear she'd had before her transplant finally gripping her completely. She was rejecting. Soon a rash would probably break out and she would become violently ill... deathly ill. And if they were unable to fight the rejection of this heart, she would die. She'd waited her entire life for one transplant. What were the odds two would come within three short years.

She'd considered herself lucky as far as the transplant had gone thus far. She'd experienced not even the slightest bought of rejection- something that was actually expected when first receiving the organ. The pain had been excruciating, but her recovery had been quick, and soon she'd been healthy.

Healthy. For the first time in her life she had been healthy. Hot tears rolled down her cheeks. Fifteen years being sick, three being healthy, then death. Eighteen years old, and she was rejecting. She knew it without a shadow of a doubt. She was sick and she needed to go to the hospital. She'd spend her last days in the same hospital Amanda did, here in South Carolina. She went to pick up the phone when Lacey Duval burst into the room, throwing her designer handbag onto the bed with an exasperated sigh. She stopped her small act when she noticed the large tears running down Chelsea's face.

"Chels...what's wrong?" she asked, panic quickly grabbing up on her. She did her best as she always did to push it aside and deal with the situation at hand. That's what she always seemed able to do, especially when it mattered most.

"I'm sick, Lacey... I need to go to the hospital.... my heart's rejecting." Chelsea James sobbed.

Lacey almost lost it.

"Tests _are _showing signs of mild rejection." The elderly doctor informed, looking down at his charts as he took a seat next to Chelsea's bed. She nodded, not in the least bit surprised, but still just as hurt. Her heart was rejecting. This was it. She was going to die.

"So... is that it?" she asked meekly.

"We will start treatment immediately. You may become very sick during this, and I must be honest, there's no 100% that this will work." the doctor leveled, gazing at her over his thick-rimmed glasses. But Chelsea already new all this. She'd read countless books, pamphlets, magazines, articles, websites, anything she could find. Rejection was often fatal.

"I want to wait for treatment until after I get to talk to my friends. In case this is my last chance... can we wait until day after tomorrow?" she knew she didn't have to ask. She was 18... an adult. She could simply refuse any treatment until then.

"Frankly, I believe we should start today, but if we must wait, there's nothing I can do to stop that. But I'll tell you- every day you put this off is a huge chunk of time as far as rejection goes. Because the longer you leave it, the worse it will become. I want to start as soon as we can, so please, call your friends who can't be here, summon those who can. I want to start by tomorrow at the latest, Miss James." His tone was firm and commanding, and Chelsea couldn't seem to find the courage to try and change his mind. He'd left the room before she would have been able to speak had she wanted to.

All she wanted right now was to talk to Katie and Lacey. To see them and tell them the things she felt they needed to know. In case this was her last chance. In case she wouldn't have a tomorrow to wait for.

((A/N: Due to the fact that I'm pulling back a little and making this about more than just Meg and Morgan, I am planning on changing the title. The rating will have to stick, since most of the people reading this are probably a little young for everything I'd like to do with this fic. Everything between those two and another twist I was planning on -- I really wanted Morgan to give in and for Meg to become pregnant, but I changed that since I have to remember this is a much younger audience and you wouldn't approve of racy stuff. Still enjoy, please.))


	4. Act Four: Realizations

((A/N: This is the longest I've ever taken to write a single chapter and I have no idea why. -.-;; I guess it's just that I've been busy and not too driven, but now I'm in a writing mood and perhaps I'll finally post this. I apologize to anyone who was following the story because I took quite a while for this update.

My small disclaimer- I didn't write the lyrics, obviously. I 3 Mr. Holopainen and that is my disclaimer. They are not mine, they belong to him. And Nightwish as a whole, I s'pose.

Also, language is a bit coarse in this chapter, so kiddies be warned.))

_Passiontide_

_An angel by my side_

_But no Christ to end this war_

_To deliver my soul from the sword_

_Hope has shown me a scenery_

_Paradise poetry_

_With first snow Ill be gone_

_- Higher Than Hope, Nightwish -_

'How could you put off treatments? Especially just for a few people to visit you! Those lost hours could be lost years, don't you realize that?' Her father's harsh words were burnt into Chelsea's mind. She knew that she probably wouldn't survive if treatment for rejection wasn't started immediately, but she didn't wan't to lose what she was certain would be her last chance to just have a few days with her friends, nothing to worry about.

'I hardly got a few years to live like a normal person, I'm taking these last few weeks as one.' She'd heard that a person can sense when death is upon them, and the cold feeling in her bones couldn't be shaken off. Chelsea James was going to die, and she was more certain of this than she'd ever been of anything.

Visiting hours would begin at three, right now it was quarter 'til. These moments of lonesome silence were the worst. They gave her time to think, time to doubt other things in her life.

What would become of her - not her body, but her soul - after she died? Would there really be a new, perfect afterlife for her? Nothing in her life was perfect. Why would it be any different after she died?

"So how long until you know what's wrong with me?" Meg cringed whenever she saw the masked looks on her father's face. He may be able to fool his other patients, but they were strangers.

Meg had been flown by helicopter back to the Virginia hospital her father worked at. As a rule, doctors did not treat patients they already had an attachment to: family, friends, lovers, people they knew at all. Supposedly, it would interfere with their decision making. Meg was begining to believe this rule was a good one.

Her father was lying to her and she knew it. Every time he said the doctors were still baffled, or there were specialists looking at the biopsies, she could see that dark cast in his eyes, the shield he put up every time he had to be emotionless to a patient. She often wondered how no one noticed this, but concluded that for one they didn't know them and for another, if they were being treated by her father, his eyes were the last thing they cared about.

This time he sighed and she knew he wasn't going to lie any more. He pulled a chair to the bed and sat down, taking her hands in his own.

"Meg... honey..." his voice was soft and she could tell how hard it was for him to chose his words.

"Just tell me dad." she whispered, her voice jagged. She could already feel her eyes burning with tears and he hadn't even told her what was wrong. A wave of dull pain swept through her head but she blinked it off. She'd been experiencing these headaches for weeks now and attributed them to nothing more than a bit too much stress.

"They found a tumor in your brain..." he whispered, "...a biopsy has been scheduled for tomorrow afternoon." his tone was cold and detatched, as was he. His grip was weak and Meg pulled from it.

"Wait... you just scheduled me a surgery without even consulting me?"

"It was nessecary, Meg. We need to find out if it's malignant." He stared straight through her as he spoke and Meg could hardly even recognize him as her father. Her father was always upbeat and lively, no matter what was going on. This was different though, she realized. This was close to him. When it was just strangers, he was so good at being detatched. A special gift that she certainly did not possess. She thought back to her time with Donovan Jacoby. She wondered if she would be facing a similar fate soon.

"I want to be alone, Dad." she whispered now, curling herself up and pulling away from him.

"Please Meggie-"

"-Not right now dad." she repeated sternly. I need this time for myself." He didn't argue long and left with a slight sigh. When he left she broke down into tears. A brain tumor, possibly cancerous. The headaches, blured vision, and passing out days before at Katie's wedding reception all made sense. There was a clump of cells growing in her brain, pressing out and setting her senses haywire. She was going to die. Sure, she knew this in the back of her mind for what seemed like her whole life. People are born, live, and die. It's the natural order of things. But right now she realized her own personal mortality, and how imminant her end may be.

Now her thoughts drifted to Morgan, and his prediciment last summer began to make startling new sense to her. Of course Morgan wouldn't have wanted to know if he was going to die. Not if he was going to live his life like this- waiting for a bunch of doctors to cut him open and tell him when. But it was different for her at the same time. Huntington's Chorea had not only no cure, but no treatments as far as she knew. As for cancer, there were plenty of treatments, and each one was more horrific than the next.

Meg sobbed. She cried for herself, for her brain that had been invaded by this terrible tumor, for everyone else who faced this fate, and even for Morgan for ever even thinking that he may have been at risk of a death that could be perhaps as terrible as this.

Megan Charnell cried her eyes out for every misery in the world.

"She's still in the hospital! Don't you think you should at least give her a call?" Morgan glared at the picture on the wall ahead of him. He, Josh, Jeff, and Eric were in the waiting room of the hospital Chelsea was now in, waiting for Katie and Lacey to come out of her room.

"It's none of my concern." Morgan said gruffly, slumping back in his chair. Meg Charnell had been taken to a hospital closer to her home the previous day. He made no attempt to visit her before this either. The girl _wasn't _any of his concern, and all he wanted was to be free from this world. This world of pain, suffering, sickness, and death. He had his share of this when he watched his first young love die.

'Anne...' Her name drifted through his name like a warm, floral breeze. He would never forget meeting her, or how wrong his first impressions of her had been. He felt the same way about Meg now, though it was the exact opposite.

Meg was exactally what he thought Anne to be- a spoiled rich girl who never knew suffering. Not like him, not like his family, not like Anne or Mr. Winngate. Maybe this was just what the girl needed.

"You're one cold son of a-"

"-Cool it, Eric." Jeff interrupted. Eric was waiting here to wish Chelsea good wishes before he returned home and she entered isolation. He knew of Chelsea's crush for him last summer, but he was too busy trying to get on Meg's good side to pay her any notice. Now Morgan had the girl just crying to be with him and he brushed her off like she was nothing. Maybe it was jealousy that was making Eric feel such animosity towards Morgan, but he just labeled the cold cowboy as a genuine asshole.

"Jeff's right..." Josh added, sighing from his spot in the corner, "The last thing we need is you two fighting over that girl. I think we're all gonna be in a whole world of shit with the Jameses for Chelsea putting off treatment."

"No... it's gonna be _our girls _in a world of shit, bud." Jeff smirked. The last thing he could do was defend Lacey, or anyone for that matter, in a fight. He couldn't take a walk without being at risk of bleeding to death. Fighting was out of the question. These thoughts crossed through his mind and shamed him, even though it was merely a figure of speech.

After a few minutes in an akward, dead silence, Katie emerged from the room. Lacey was soon to follow, and both were swiping tears from their eyes.

"I don't like the looks of this." Josh whispered, wiping away stray tears from Katie's face. She pressed her face into his shoulder and sobbed, holding onto her new husband as if for life itself. For Chelsea's life she was, at least. Everything she'd read about, every risk she was up against Chelsea was succumbing to. She knew that even with treatments, there was a good chance that the rejection would be permanent. If that were the case, she was as good as dead. Katie knew the chances of getting even a first heart transplant, and those of a second were slim to none.

Lacey stared stoicly at the ground, keeping her mouth shut. The last thing she needed was to break down in front of all these people, two of whom were basically strangers. She bit her lip and leaned against the wall, letting out a low sigh. Chelsea was going to die. She knew it in her mind and in her heart. This was it.

Amanda died when she was sixteen, and Lacey was sure it would be the end of it. Then she met Jillian. As much as she didn't want to get to know the girl, she felt an instant bond. Jillian then died as Chelsea got the heart transplant that both girls were waiting for.

Now Chelsea would be gone, and it would only be Katie and herself. She was well aware that Katie's time was limited as well. Each year after a transplant, the recipeint's odds went down. As normal as her life could be, it would never last as long as she wanted. It would never be as long as her friends' or, more importantly, as Josh's.

"Don't you understand?" Lacey whispered, voicing her fears, "Chelsea's gonna die. You only get so many chances, and this one failed! It was her only hope, and it's lost too. Don't you know what the odds were for a first heart? She'll never get a second!" Lacey cried out in frustration for her friend. How fair was it to feel this way? Right now she wished more than anything that the drugs would work, but she knew they wouldn't. She saw the looks on the James' faces and heard their hushed words. The drugs were having no effect, and doctors were begining to believe they wouldn't have no matter what the condition.

They would be putting Chelsea back on the waiting list for a transplant soon, then it would only be a waiting game. Waiting for someone to die so she could have another chance to live. How fair was that? Lacey succumbed to the tears burning at her eyes. How fair was life, though? How fair was life?


End file.
